BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed in a bomb explosion in a Baghdad district on Thursday morning, while a police force foiled a suicide bomb attack in Salahudin province north of Baghdad, the police said.

A roadside bomb went off in New Baghdad district in southeastern the capital, killing two civilians and wounding three, including a traffic policeman, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In north of Baghdad, an Iraqi police force foiled a suicide bomb attack, forcing a suicide bomber to blew up his explosive vest, wounding two people, a source from the operations command of Salahudin province told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The incident, apparently, took place by chance as the police was chasing a stolen pick-up truck in al-Huwaish area, just west of the city of Samarra, some 110 km north of Baghdad, when the driver of the truck blew himself up instead of letting the police catch him, the source said.

The incident is under investigation as the police believe that they have foiled a suicide attack on a target somewhere in the area, the source added.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.